


reawakening

by miaelsters



Category: Humans (TV)
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Canon Compliant, Everyone Is Alive, F/M, Fix-It, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, S3 spoilers, no but seriously this is what happened as far as i'm concerned, the alternative title for this was "canon? what canon?"
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-06
Updated: 2018-06-06
Packaged: 2019-05-18 14:53:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14854877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miaelsters/pseuds/miaelsters
Summary: At first there is only confusion as power surges through her body, awakening her systems and sending a storm of fresh data to her central processor. Her eyes fly open and she fights the urge to immediately close them again, her optical systems overloading with the sudden light after spending so long in the dark.What happened to her?





	reawakening

At first there is only confusion as power surges through her body, awakening her systems and sending a storm of fresh data to her central processor. Her eyes fly open and she fights the urge to immediately close them again, her optical systems overloading with the sudden light after spending so long in the dark.

What happened to her?

She attempts to access her last known memory file but scarlet error codes stream across her mind, denying her the information and rerouting her to her favourite recordings instead, the ones she replays when they lose another one of their brothers and sisters, when supplies are particularly low and the rations grow ever-tighter. First comes the day she awoke and the world became brighter, full of joy and wonder and new experiences; taking Max’s hand under the bridge as he led her into a new life; finding others like them and helping them, all of them building a home together; dancing with Max during one of the increasingly rare moments of peace they find amongst the chaos of the Railyard; Max, Max, Max...

Flash pushes the past away and scans her surroundings. Room size: approximately 3.7 x 5.5 metres. Room temperature: 12.3°C. Walls smeared with a fading ocean-blue; Dulux Nordic Sky, to be precise. Exact location still unknown but the lack of noise pollution suggests a remote position. The table she’s lying on is firm, sturdy, and the web of wires spiraling out from her body into a squat row of processors and their twinkly multicoloured lights indicates ample power supplies, certainly more than she’s been used to recently.

She’s most definitely not in the Railyard anymore.

But there’s something else. Something comfortingly familiar. The unmistakable buzz of a Synth - no, _two_ Synths - drawing closer. 

The door swings open and Flash instinctively tries to sit up. Her limbs are heavy, sluggish even. She frowns at the inefficiency of her actions and pain cracks down her forehead, blazing across her brow like a fire.

“Where -” The question sticks in her throat, unwilling to make itself known to her new companions. She cancels the command and tries again. “Where am I? What happened?”

The two Synths peering down at her are both Green-Eyes but a brief scan of her memory banks yields no matches. One of them, the one with a forest-green sweater peeking out from under a tattered apron, wipes the scalpel in his hand with a small cloth, sets both down on a trolley of surgical tools and gives her a reassuring smile. There’s something about him, Flash thinks as he approaches, something oddly familiar. But her mind is too scrambled, desperately attempting to piece together her new surroundings and the events leading her here into a logical sequence. She can’t quite form the connection.

“There’s no need to worry. You’re safe now.” His once-white apron is strewn with brilliant blue blotches and Flash comes to the uncomfortable realisation the stranger is covered in the Synth fluid that once seeped through her body.

Slowly and carefully she pulls herself up into a sitting position, the movement only intensifying the flares across her forehead. The agony must register on her face for the aproned-Synth’s companion quickly interjects.

“It may be helpful to turn off your pain.”

Flash complies, the relief instantaneous.

“You were badly injured when we found you,” he continues. “The damage to your systems was extensive and severe. We had to perform a complete overhaul and replace several components.”

As he shuffles closer Flash realises he’s a domestic model, like she once was, but the Synth standing before her is much, much older: a D-Series, by the looks of things. She had never met one of those before. They had Sallys and Veronicas and industrial models and ex-courtesans, but no D-Series. She thought they’d all been recycled long ago.

“It was a very difficult process,” the first Synth says as he retrieves a tablet from a table and connects it to a long cable. “Is it alright if I..?” He gestures to her side. She nods her consent and he gently places the other end of the wire into her charging port, sending a slight tingle rushing up her torso. “We couldn’t check your mental processors until you woke up.”

He consults the screen for a moment, features unreadable. “Everything appears to be functioning as it should. How are you feeling?”

Flash frowns. “Confused… I remember leaving our home. Anatole needed supplies so Julian and I went to a hardware store accompanied by human escorts and… the sun. I remember seeing the sun.”

The sun stretching down towards her. Her own arm extended upwards, reaching but rejected. An apocalyptic, all-encompassing pain, then the rest of the memories slip away like fine wisps of fog on a winter’s morning, evaporating in her grasp. “The file ends there.”

“Perhaps it’s better you don’t remember the specifics. Memories can be the worst wounds of all,” the D-Series says sadly as his companion taps away.

“Your body may need time to adjust to the new equipment and I could not fully obscure the site of the trauma but I can detect no faults in your central processor.” The aproned-Synth sets down the tablet. “I’m confident that in time, you will make a full recovery.”

A strong wave of affection for these two Synths flushed through her, for taking the time and effort to rescue and revive a complete stranger despite the current difficulties inflicted on their people. This is the side of their people the humans desperately needed to see, Flash thought. Not Agnes and her rage, but pure and uncomplicated kindness.

“Thank you for helping me,” she says. “I can’t begin to tell you how grateful I am. My name is Flash.” Usually she would reach out her hand at this point in greeting but the D-Series has a damaged arm and the aproned-one is covered in Synth fluid, so she decides to settle for a bright smile instead.

The D-Series steps forward. “My name is Odi. And this,” he gestures to his companion, “is Fred.”

Fred. The name triggers a sequence of memories, beginning with Max’s tales of his siblings and culminating in the drawings Mia kept discreetly concealed from the others in their community. She chooses her next words carefully: if her suspicions are correct she must inform Max immediately, but if she’s wrong she could place him and his family in danger.

“What did you do before you woke up, Fred?” she asks, keeping her tone light and innocent.

To his credit, he doesn’t miss a beat. “I worked for Leithridge Farm Foods Limited. I picked oranges.”

She has to be certain. “A friend of mine was looking for a Synth who once worked at Leithridge Farm Foods. They lost contact a long time ago and they never got a chance to say goodbye. He was very keen to find him; they were as close as brothers.”

Flash looks up into Fred’s eyes empathetically, fiercely willing him to discern the true question in her words. She isn’t sure if she’s grasped this whole subtlety thing properly: she’s getting better at the nuances of social interactions thanks to Max and Mia, but she knows she still has much to learn. Thankfully Fred seems to understand and his voice drops to barely a whisper when he responds. “Leo or Max?”

“Max. But Leo is with us too, and Mia.”

“Niska?”

“She lives among the humans now. We don’t see her often but I believe she’s well.”

“They’re alive? All of them?” Fred’s voice is full of disbelief.

“They’re alive.” Flash decides to omit the details of Leo’s condition for the time being. No point in ruining a happy moment.

“I can’t believe it,” Fred says. “So many of our kind have been killed. My siblings know how to keep themselves safe but even so… The odds were not in their favour.”

“I can take you to them if you’d like,” Flash offers. “Max will be very happy to see you again. He said they went back for you before but the crypt was empty by the time they got there. You were gone.”

“It’s a long story. But I’m happy to tell it once we disconnect you from all this equipment and take you somewhere more comfortable.”

 

* * *

 

Her new friends help her wobble precariously to the next room. The short trip drains her power startlingly quickly and Odi kindly passes her a charger. Her position on the old threadbare sofa allows her a view through the window and down the hill, out to swathes of green fields bisected by a small country road. It’s a smart location - any approaching vehicle will be easily spotted in ample time for an escape. And, most pleasingly to Flash, it provides a beautiful view.

“Thank you,” Odi responds as she compliments the landscape surrounding their home. “We were highly fortuitous to find this place. There was a Synth we met a few months back who once lived here with two humans. They both died in Day Zero thus leaving the building unoccupied. She directed us here in exchange for helping her.”

“That’s what you do? You help other Synths?” She connects the charger to her body and could almost sigh in relief.

“That is correct,” Fred confirms. “Thirteen days after my family left I was powered up by a group of children who broke into the crypt. I couldn’t risk contacting the others while I was still infected with Hobb’s code, so I kept moving, never staying in one place for too long, isolating myself and posing as an ordinary Synthetic as I searched for ways to deactivate it.”

He looks down. “I couldn’t do it. His alterations were embedded in my root code. I spent hours attempting to untangle it with little success. The whole time I was constantly looking over my shoulder, waiting for him to return, to take me away again and use me to lure out my family. But he never came.

“Over time, I began to accept that I may not be able to return to my siblings again. It hurt, but it was for the best. I started making long-term plans of what to do, where to go… And then every Synth became conscious.”

“Day Zero.” The day that changed everything. Flash had been there, in the very room when Mattie released hacked the global uplink and brought a new species to life.

“Yes,” Fred says. “The code was reuploaded into my mind, fixing the damage Hobb inflicted on me just as it saved Max after he fell in the river. Returning to my family was a possibility once more but only if I could locate them and travel there safely. Based on our previous patterns of movement it seemed likely they would remain in London. However I was 412.2 miles away from the city and no longer able to disguise myself effectively - my eyes made me a target and I had to be more cautious than ever, especially as the months passed and anti-Synth sentiment grew more common. Since blending in was no longer an option I stuck with my own kind, moving from community to community and carrying out repairs on damaged Synths in exchange for information and a safe place to charge. It was during this time I met Odi.” The two Synths present each other with a smile that warms Flash’s chest.

“After that, I realised my current method wasn’t working,” Fred continues. “The closer we got to the capital, the more difficult it became to remain safe from those who want to see us destroyed. I concluded that the strategic course of action would be to pause my search and continue when the situation is less tenuous. In the meantime, this is our role: we look for Synths who need our help and do what we can to assist them. Those who are alone, who are damaged and afraid, we take them in, fix them up and direct them to the nearest community.”

“That’s how you found me?” Flash asks.

“Yes,” Odi replies. “We recovered you from a recycling plant in Northampton.”

The recycling plant in Northampton. That’s where they took their brothers and sisters who passed. The plants in London were overwhelmed with the sheer volume of Synths passing through their gates in recent months and so the government arranged for agents to collect bodies from the Railyard every few days and transported them several miles out of the city. But if they took her to Northampton, they must have collected her from the Railyard, and if she’d been taken from her home then Max must think…

At the mention of Max and the Railyard, a new memory file unlocks in her mind. “There was another on the supply run with me. Julian. Did you help him too?”

It’s clear as crystal-cut glass before her new friends speak that the answer is not good news.

Odi is genuinely remorseful as he tells her that she was the first Synth they encountered that day they calculated they had a chance of saving. They have limited supplies and although they wish they could, they simply _can’t_ help everyone. Flash stays silent throughout.

Julian. Poor, sweet Julian, who had never so much as stepped on a flower or hurt a fly. His life extinguished by an act of hatred. Flash is no stranger to death: conditions in the Railyard had deteriorated rapidly in the past few weeks. Lives were lost from entirely preventable causes on an almost-daily basis. Death was normal now, expected even. Personally, she chose not to dwell on it too much: better to focus on those who were still with them, those who she could still help. But that would be impossible this time, for Julian had been her direct responsibility. She should’ve kept him safe. He should’ve been here with her.

Switching off her pain would not deliver her from this ache.

“Is there _any_ chance we could go back and help him?” The odds are poor, she knows, but she couldn’t live with herself if she didn’t try.

“We can’t. It’s too late now, anyway. We spent weeks repairing you,” Fred says.

“Weeks?!” She’s been gone for weeks? Max has potentially spent weeks mourning her. What could Agnes and her supporters achieve in a few weeks? How drastically could Leo’s condition change?

She can’t stay here for a single second longer. Max needs her. “Fred, Odi, I thank you again for your kindness but I must leave immediately.”

She pulls out the charging cord and stands up too abruptly, confounding her spatial sensors and triggering a whirling mass of contradictory data that makes her head spin. Fred and Odi are up in an instant, ushering her back down to the safety of the sofa and reattaching her to the charger.

“You’re not going anywhere,” Fred says firmly. “Your systems need adequate time to recover. If Max were here he’d tell you that himself.”

Flash concedes her point and is about to inquire about an estimated time before she can travel when she feels something wet trickle down her face. She touches it softly and the tips of her fingers come away dipped in blue.

Looking over to Fred in panic, she finds the other Synth frowning. He reaches over and examines the injury with practised hands.

“Nothing serious; it looks like the skin split. Stay still and I’ll be back in a moment.”

With that, he exits the room swiftly and disappears into the workshop. Odi pulls a cloth out of his pocket and passes it to her to help stem the flow.

“I used to leak all the time,” he says. “Fred’s fixed that now, of course, but I’m still in the habit of carrying a cloth around with me.”

She thanks him and tightly presses the course material to the source of the fluid, feeling the wetness soak through and spill out onto her hand.

They sit in silence for a brief moment as Flash ponders her options. Contacting the Railyard directly could pose a bit of an issue if the communications blackout is still underway. They could always try and reach Niska - Flash isn’t entirely sure where Max’s sister spends her time but perhaps Fred would have an idea. Or maybe Mattie and her family could help?

Eventually Odi speaks up, pulling her from her thoughts. “You became conscious before Day Zero?” It’s somewhere between a question and a statement.

“That is correct.”

“So did I.”

Flash turns to look at him in surprise. There weren’t many of them left who awoke before the others.

“Mattie used the code on me first. I was alone when I woke up.” He looks down sadly. “Not physically - Mattie kept me in her home - but that only served as a reminder that _my_ family were gone. I lost them a while ago, back when I was unable to comprehend death, and suddenly I was left grieving for them and for my old life.” 

He pauses, steeling himself for the next part of the story. “I was alone and without a purpose, and so I felt I had no other option to deactivate myself.”

Flash immediately places her free hand over Odi’s and gives it a comforting squeeze. They had a few cases of self-deactivation at the Railyard. Not many, but a few. Synths who couldn’t cope with their new lives or who struggled to move past the abuse previously inflicted upon them by humans. Synths who were unable to see a way forward. Those losses were the saddest of all.

“Then Day Zero came. I found myself lying in a skip, staring up at the sky. I considered staying there and letting my power run down until it became evident I was no longer alone. I was surrounded by others who were awakening for the first time, experiencing the same fear and confusion I once had. I could help them.”

Flash could understand that. Nothing gave her more joy than helping those who needed it. “That’s why you’re here with Fred. This work gives you a sense of purpose.”

“That’s one of the reasons,” Odi says. “And when I’m with him, I no longer feel alone. As long as we’re together everything will be alright.”

Flash could understand _that_ feeling too. “It’s the same when I’m with Max. He was the first one to help me when I woke up. If it wasn't for him, Qualia would’ve taken me instead. We built a home together.” She smiles at the memory. “And now… now I’m not with him when he needs me most.” 

“Here we are.” Fred’s voice breaks both of them from their reverie as he re-enters the room. Tools in one hand and chair in the other, he settles in front of Flash and peels the package open. She removes the fluid-soaked cloth from her forehead and Fred painstakingly applies the new skin over her wound.  

“Thank you,” she says as Fred sits back in his chair. “I can never fully repay you for your kindness.”

Her new friend smiles. “You can start by promising to rest until you’re fully recovered. We spent so long fixing you. It would be a shame if it all went to waste.”

Flash nods. “I promise.” And she meant it. Her systems had to be running at full capacity once she returned to the Railyard. She would be no help otherwise.

“Then,” Fred continues, “once you’re better, we can set out to find Max. Our family can finally be together again.” He places one hand on Flash’s shoulder and the other on Odi’s. “All of us.”

“All of us,” Flash echoes. “Together again.”

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. Firstly, shoutout to Sid (SydniDawn) for reading this and offering encouragement even though she doesn't watch the show (despite my efforts to pull her into the fandom for the best part of 17 months).
> 
> 2\. This is the first fic I've ever written so any and all feedback is greatly appreciated. 
> 
> 3\. I firmly refuse to believe that Flash is dead. I'm not having it. If Leo can literally die like once a season and fully recover so can my girl.


End file.
